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Warriors say ka kite to Reece Walsh, Football Ferns beat Mexico, Molly Penfold & Ben Sears, no UCL for Marko Stamenic quite yet, and more
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The Wellington Phoenix’s Aussie Cup Run Is Over But The Real Yarns Are Only Just Beginning (Football)
Aotearoa vs Australia ODI Series Preview (Cricket)
Will Young Has Been Building Winter Foundations In England (Cricket)
The Football Ferns Are Staying Busy, Here’s Another Squad Write-Up (Football)
Flying Kiwis – August 30 (Football)
Tim Southee Is Poised To Snap Up Blackcaps Opportunities (Cricket)
Blackcaps Winter Tour Notebook Dump (Cricket)
Returning To The Suzie Bates Status-Quo (Cricket)
27fm Album Jukebox - August 2022 (Music)
Scotty’s Word
There was no better way for Aotearoa Warriors to wrap up the pandemic pocket than a capitulation vs Gold Coast Titans featuring Reece Walsh losing the plot. Winning might seem like a better end-of-era finish and dealing in such pain as Warriors wobbles doesn't leave a great taste heading into spring. Then again, nothing about the pandemic suggested that this pocket would finish with positive vibes.
Watching Walsh bark at coaches on the sideline and ignoring the 'chill bro' button felt especially glorious. I've pondered a complex vibe with Walsh since he arrived at Warriors and for all the flash that Walsh offers, he seems like a tricky wee character.
Strictly from observing Warriors footy, Walsh appears chaotic and he carries an 'all about me' type of energy. Walsh provides value as a player with his speed and skill generating points… although not many wins. While I view Walsh as a good player, he didn't appear to help Warriors and I now feel comfortable suggesting that Walsh may have hindered team culture/vibe.
Ever since Walsh arrived at Warriors there were headlines about him departing and it probably wasn't a good sign that as Walsh settled into NRL footy, he got caught up in off-field situations. Now he returns to Broncos; Walsh is second for errors, followed by Broncos players Selwyn Cobbo, Corey Oates and Kotoni Staggs in the top-five.
When Walsh signed with Broncos they were fifth (9-6) and they finish the season ninth (13-11).
Remember that Walsh signed with Warriors out of convenience. Walsh thought he was ready for NRL footy and Warriors were based in Australia, plus Warriors also knew that Roger Tuivasa-Sheck was exploring rugby union options. Walsh joined Warriors without having to leave Queensland and now vision of Walsh barking at coaches at Mt Smart brings an end to this saga.
Warriors now exit survival mode. The fact that NZ Warriors, Wellington Phoenix and NZ Breakers survived the pandemic as kiwi teams competing in Australian competitions is impressive. These three teams all had disadvantages compared to Australian teams and when they are not starting at the same line, we should be empathetic for their results. Imagine if All Blacks spent all of 2022 playing overseas without home advantage or connection to fans.
These three organisations didn't just survive as sports teams, they survived as businesses, now further entrenched in their turangawaewae. Aotearoa media loves extremes and we are seeing this play out with All Blacks coverage, let alone Warriors coverage. There is nothing extreme about Warriors. They loiter in Monday melancholy…
Warriors finished 13th, 10th, 13th, 8th and 13th in the five seasons prior to 2020.
During a pandemic with blatant disadvantages, Warriors finished 10th, 12th and 13th.
All Warriors did was maintain a status-quo and while this is a root of fandom frustration, maintaining a status-quo amongst chaos is impressive. Did you maintain your baseline level of performance during the pandemic? I didn't.
Warriors have made finals footy once since 2013 and they haven't finished worse than 13th in this period. Warriors have never won an NRL championship and they haven't finished worse than 15th - never won a wooden spoon. That is what Warriors have always been and many folks pretend things are better or worse.
Oh and during the pandemic, Warriors had four different coaches. Three seasons and four coaches. That is not conducive with winning and there was no basis to expect any improvements in these circumstance. Thankfully, this is all over.
Warriors wobbles might not be over, but this pandemic pocket is over. In my mind, Walsh is the defining figure of the pandemic phase and it was only right that Walsh's bickering wraps up this phase.
Redcliffe U21s lost to Townsville but should be in line for another finals fixture this weekend. Ali Leiataua continued his try-scoring mahi with two tries, joined in the team by the Kepu twins, Jacob Laban, Zyon Maiu'u, Lleyton Finau and Demitric Sifakula.
There are some short-term bits of business to track in coming weeks. Jesse Arthars will probably return to Broncos and Daejarn Asi is off-contract, both could be decent options for Warriors to keep. Tom Ale has been robust in his end-of-season flourish since returning from injury and his contract status is murky but he showed more than enough oomph to impress new coach Andrew Webster.
Junior stuff will focus on the SG Ball squad when that is named. SG Ball starts in February, so I expect Warriors to make their announcement later this year after representative footy.
For those who don't dwell in the rugby league mangroves, the 2020 Warriors SG Ball team is an example of low key decent junior mahi. Viliami Vailea and Taniela Otukolo have already played NRL from that SG Ball team (U18 at the time), while the Kepu twins, Maiu'u, Leiataua and Finau all played SG Ball before moving through the pipeline to Redcliffe.
Laban was younger than those lads so he didn't play SG Ball that year but has transitioned from Redcliffe U18s to U21s this year. Sifakula went straight from De La Salle College to Redcliffe 21s and these are fairly impressive indicators of quality talent.
During the pandemic phase, Warriors produced two NRL debutants from their SG Ball team and at least eight lads transitioned from local Auckland footy to Redcliffe - likely to swing back around to Warriors teams. Hence the upcoming SG Ball campaign is notable.
Negative Neds will pounce if Warriors don't sign Xavier Tito-Harris (Glenora - KBHS) or Francis Manuleleua (Papatoetoe - Kings College). These two both have rugby league backgrounds and are among the best 1st 15 players in Aotearoa, who have also been in many Future Warriors activities. Both will command lots of offers from either code and if Warriors can snap up one of them, that will be a bonus.
Lydia Ko dipped in her final round of the Dana Open (Ohio) to finish tied-16th. Ko was chillin' in the top-five for much of this tournament alongside America's Lexi Thompson but they both fell down the leaderboard in the fourth round. This gives Ko five top-20 finishes in a row and 11 top-20 finishes in her last 12 tournaments.
Ko is third for scoring average with 69.418 and she has averaged scores below 70 for her past five tournaments. Ko is second for total birdies and while she is 32nd for Greens in Regulation (on the green within two shots of par), Ko is the best at putting after hitting that GiR.
There are three more LPGA tournaments to be played this month. This weekend is the Queen City Championship and Ko isn't listed in the entries so she will take a break ahead of what is likely to be an exciting final stretch of the tour.
I have been pondering the difference in development between Ben Sears and Molly Penfold, both of whom are the fastest young bowlers in Aotearoa cricket. Sears is in the Blackcaps squad to face Australia, Penfold is in the White Ferns squad to tour West Indies and as unique fast bowling athletes require comprehensive development this might be a key juncture.
Molly Penfold
LA: 36.92avg/5.53rpo
T20: 36.14avg/7rpo
Ben Sears
FC: 25.71avg/3.68rpo
LA: 32.82avg/5.58rpo
T20: 19.38avg/7.57rpo
Penfold: 736 deliveries (List-A: 520, T20: 216).
Sears: 3,437 deliveries (FC: 1,927, LA: 988, T20: 522).
Penfold doesn't have the same luxury of three formats as Sears which skews the difference in total number of deliveries. Penfold has an interesting combination of minimal workload and not being a dominant figure in domestic cricket, neither of which feels like the best recipe for developing a fast bowler. Sears has quietly gathered reps in domestic cricket and that has led to domination.
The main takeaway isn't about Penfold and Sears, but about the teams they are selected in. Penfold's swift rise is not ideal but this tells us plenty about White Ferns and their need for talent. This may be too much, too soon though.
Blackcaps have the most depth I have ever experienced and Sears has been drizzled on to the international scene. Lads like Tom Blundell, Will Young, Matt Henry and Daryl Mitchell built up mana in Blackcaps squads before pouncing on opportunities. Sears similar and while White Ferns players have struggled to make notable improvements, there is a strong trend of Blackcaps getting better which Sears can fit into.
Ajaz Patel is named for Glamorgan in County Championship Division Two. Glamorgan are third in Div rua (5-2-3) and Patel will be eager to rack up wickets after a confusing year or so. Here’s what Patel has done since his 10 wickets of Mumbai magic…
Plunket Shield: 8w @ 43.75avg/2.50rpo.
Ford Trophy: 2w @ 3.25rpo (one game).
Super Smash: 2w @ 79avg/10.53rpo.
Tour of England: 7w @ 27.57avg/3.32rpo.
Patel has played one Test since that game in Mumbai. The weird non-selection vs Bangladesh vibes have stretched out to selection/deployment niggle in England. Patel did not dominate last summer in domestic cricket as he battled sporadic appearances due to injury and he is now graced with a lovely longform opportunity with Glamorgan.
Will Young is still with Northamptonshire as they move from one-day cricket to County Championships. Northants are fifth in Div tahi (2-2-6) and Young has 449 runs @ 44.90avg (1 x 100, 3 x 50) as skipper.
Wildcard’s Notebook
The Football Ferns won! A 1-0 triumph over Mexico, courtesy of a CJ Bott goal in the 84th minute gave the Fernies their second win of the Jitka Klimková era and put a halt to a seven-game winless streak. Although if you think seven games was a stretch best not peek at the 15-game winless streak that came before that one.
There’ll be a very good chance to make it two wins in a row when they face the Philippines on Wednesday. The Football Ferns haven’t won two in a row since the Oceania Nations Cup in late 2018 and not done so outside their own confederation since back to back wins over Brazil (1-0) and China (4-0) at the Valais Women's Cup in 2013. But for now let’s talk about this Mexico win.
Not that there’s too much to say as it was held behind closed doors and wasn’t even streamed, let alone televised. Sounds like that was the decision of Mexico who were acting as host nation (the game was in California, as will the next one be). How exactly a senior international can go down without anyone outside the two squads being able to see it, not even delayed, in this day and age is pretty astounding. Like, at least chuck the scout footage up on YouTube. We’ve got grassroots clubs can manage that all goods and the national team gets a blackout? Scandalous.
What’s more is that NZ Football promised a highlights package on their YouTube channel soon after the game but we’re 48 hours removed without a wink of that either. There was at least a clip of the winning goal chucked up on a few socials so that was something. A small offering of breadcrumbs to the hoarded mass of pigeons.
Clearly that’s not ideal for the purposes of writing about it. Based on the NZF twitter coverage it does sound like the kiwi team had the better of the match... but you’ve gotta take official accounts with a grain of salt at the best of times. Still, it’s good to at least hear that they were creating chances. It’s even better to see that they managed to take one of them – a typical banger from CJB on her return to the side after a couple injuries kept her out of recent squads. As if she’d ever score anything other than a banger, to be fair.
There were a few selection dramas for this match as Hannah Wilkinson and Grace Jale were both ruled out late with covid. One locked-on starter up front and one possible replacement for said starter. The injury bug went further than that too. Ashleigh Ward, Rebekah Stott, and Emma Rolston all missed this squad due to injury although Ward and Rolston both made the bench for their club teams last weekend. Rollo even took the field in her game... but given that it was her return from an injury that’d kept her out about a month it’s obviously understandable why she wasn’t chucked on a plane and flown to California straight after.
In contrast to them, Daisy Cleverley was named but didn’t play for her club in their last match. That late-notice injury meant there wasn’t much time to find a replacement although helpfully Maggie Jenkins has been a part of a Klimková squad in the past and made the cross-coast flight from University of Central Florida to join the squad.
Then to make matters even worse Annalie Longo suffered a knee injury midway through the first half against Mexico which has just been confirmed as an ACL and MCL tear. Brutal news after some fine performances got Longo back into the international picture last window. Now she’s highly likely to miss the 2023 World Cup entirely. Ria Percival suffered a similar injury back in February and could be touch and go for that tournament so Longo doing the same in September is... well, like I said it’s brutal.
A lot of this is guesswork without having seen the game. But the line-up sure looks like a repeat of the 4-4-2 shape of the previous tour. JK seemed to like how the team operated with two wide players on each flank allowing for overlaps and crosses from a variety of angles.
Presumably Liv Chance and debutant Indi Riley played as the wide mids outside Longo (and then Malia Steinmetz after Longo went off) and Betsy Hassett in the middle. The back four had CJ Bott and Ali Riley out wide with Claudia Bunge and Meikayla Moore central (very predictable quartet). Jacqui Hand and Paige Satchell shared striking duties. Vic Esson made her fifth start in the last six matches as goalkeeper.
Vic Esson also kept a clean sheet. Her second consecutive clean sheet. Her fourth clean sheet in her last six caps. Yeah, Vic Esson is the only goalie to have kept a clean sheet since Klimková took over and she’s got four of them. Prior to the 2-0 win over South Korea the Ferns had conceded in 15 consecutive games. They’ve held their opposition scoreless in 4 outta 9 since. Vic Esson continues to be a lucky charm (and also a really good keeper - luck may have nothing to do with it).
A 22-woman squad was down to 20 players at kickoff including one late replacement and three of them were goalies. This for a team that picks an abundance of centre-backs at the best of times. Hence why some of the subs look a little wonky... Steinmetz for Longo was an easy like for like (22’). Likewise with Gabi Rennie for Jacqui Hand (61’).
Yet Liz Anton replacing Liv Chance (61’) when you’re chasing a goal is a little less comprehensible. That probably meant Bott to the wing and Anton to fullback - hence CJB was where she was to score the goal. Kate Taylor also came on for Paige Satchell (75’). Not sure what that reshuffle would’ve looked like. Ali Riley to a wing and Indi Riley up front, perhaps? Then Taylor (or maybe Moore) to fullback? Can’t really tell ya when the game wasn’t viewable. NZF haven’t even done a match report for their website. Coverage has been a shambles all around.
But we do know that there was ice cream to celebrate. Hell yes, there was. Shot coach.
Now for an excerpt from this week’s Flying Kiwis because there’s been a fair bit of Marko Stamenic hype lately after he made a few first team appearances for FC København early on in their season. Even more hype after FCK went and qualified for the Champions League group stage.
It has been a wee bit funny watching other kiwi media jump the gun on his UCL stuff – a few mins off the bench in a qualifier is not a Champions League appearance (it’s a Champions League qualifying appearance) and given he’s been in and out of matchday squads lately there was never any guarantee he’d play just because his team made it that far. I was banging on that drum too though, hence it pains me to now tell you that it appears that Marko Stamenic has missed the cut for their Champions League squad and therefore won’t be eligible to play in any of these group games. Bugger.
There is a lot to explain about this situation however and it’s not merely a case of being surplus to requirements. Here’s what I’ve written for tomorrow’s Flying Kiwis efforts...
This stuff is a bit confusing because there are two levels to the squads, the A-List and the B-List, and requirements for a certain amount of locally-developed players. You’ve got 25 spots on the A-List but that does get reduced if you can’t find eight homegrowns to add to it – in effect, if any of those eight homegrown spots are empty then they stay empty, you can’t pick someone else, your squad is just one dude smaller. The criteria for a homegrown player is being: “on a club's books for three years between the ages of 15 and 21”, or “on another club's books in the same association for three years between the ages of 15 and 21” (but you can only have four max of the latter variety).
Meanwhile the List-B is for players who, this season, were born on or after 1 January 2001 and have either been at the club for two uninterrupted years since their 15th birthday or three-plus years with a maximum of one loan out (for no longer than one season and only to a club in the same association). Marko Stamenic was born on 19 February 2002 so he meets the age limit there but he spent last season out on loan with HB Køge and it’s only been two years since he joined FCK in the first place. In other words he’s one year short of getting in on that action. FCK have named 13 players on that B-List including five who, like Stamenic, played in the Trabzonspor playoff games.
Hence he’d have to have been a List-A player, and here’s the problem with that... Copenhagen have only been able to put 20 players on their A-List thanks to a lack of homegrown seniors. The UCL website doesn’t specify which lads are homegrown but they must have at least three. No dramas as far as putting a squad together thanks to their big stock of current youngsters on the B-List. However Stamenic is stuck in that awkward spot between the two lists and has therefore missed a seat on the bus.
Rough news for Stammers who has featured four times for the club this season, all off the bench, and been in more matchday squads than not. Some of the B-Listers haven’t come close to that kinda prominence... but of course they weren’t signed from Western Suburbs in Porirua in September 2020 so it doesn’t matter.
Bottom line is: no Champions League for Marko Stamenic this season. Not unless they make the knockouts (or finish third in their group and drop into the Europas) when they can make up to three changes to the squad. Annoyingly there are guys on that A-List who have played fewer minutes than him so far. All attackers though. Clearly they don’t feel they need an extra defensive midfielder quite so badly. He’ll be eligible for the B-List next season as long as he stays at the club. After that you’d hope he’ll be able to crack the A’s on merit.
Stamenic was an unused sub for the 1-0 win over Silkeborg in the Superliga this weekend. Another good win booked by a 41st minute goal for Viktor Claesson in a tricky game against a side who’d started things really well. That’s four wins and four losses to start the term. Getting back on track after a poor start. Stamenic can still play as much domestic stuff as he wants and with the quick turnarounds of midweek UCL games maybe that’ll help his cause.
Also gotta mention that FCK took the opportunity to play a 45-minute friendly game against Silkeborg over the weekend with an eye on giving out game time to some of the depth players. Four guys from the A-List took part. There were three starters plus another substitute from the B-List. Plus four more guys from outside the Champions League squad. Not only was Marko Stamenic one of those... but he captained the side. So don’t feel like he’s bound for the scrap heap just because he has to wait (hopefully only) one more year for Champions League football.